Update as of September 2019: Added more details on Akusa's thoughts and changed some order of events as to fix flow. Chapter's plot remains unchanged.

The Sun's Shadow

The timer had already started, yet neither of them moved. Akusa and Fumei both stood their ground, waiting for the other to make a mistake and use it in their favor. Akusa could sense the patience around them run thin as each second passed, but he knew well enough not to underestimate this one.

Natsuaki Fumei, fifteen years of age, born to a family of four. He had an emitter type quirk known as Solid Light which allowed him to trap solar energy as far as his eye can see and solidify them into smoothened plates. It first manifested during a camping trip when he was four. He fell off a tree and caught himself with a plate of light. He had no history having been trained or competing with it, which completely contradicts his case of being the best combatant in class.

No one had seen him fight with it until now, Akusa thought, and yet everyone readily believed Fumei's claims.

As one typically should, Akusa sought out answers for the questions that plagued the character that is Fumei. He managed to get his hands on the blond's practical results and was surprised to see his scores exceed even those in the Hero Class. It became clear that Fumei was not in fact lying. Still, Akusa felt as though there was more to it than just that.

No one in their right mind would do well in the entrance exam for Japan's most prestigious hero school; make the cut, then decide not to just because they didn't feel like it anymore.

Fumei's fingers twitched, and Akusa narrowed his eyes at him. He started to move towards the left and Akusa moved opposite of him. Their eyes didn't leave each other's focus as they circled around the stage, until Fumei stopped.

Akusa felt the sun's warmth burn through his tracksuit, and looked up a few seconds too late. He caught something glitter above his head, and was forced to roll out of its trajectory when a solidified blade of light tried to cut through him.

He instinctively threw a shadowed spike toward Fumei in response, but was disappointed when it dissolves under the hot midday light. Fumei grinned, and Akusa cursed his slow assessment of their environment.

Fumei tricked him into focusing on only one thing. By standing very still and making the smallest of movements, Akusa would be hyper aware of his opponent rather than what was around him. Fumei guided him to stand under the glass ceiling where the sunlight was heavier.

It greatly amplified Fumei's quirk, and easily subdued his own.

"That was smart," Akusa said, commending the other's silent brilliance. Perhaps there is more to this one than meets the eye.

"Thanks, I guess?" the other said, confused. "I completely missed you though. Should've inched a bit more to the right. That was a great dodge by the way! Wish I could do that."

Akusa's narrowed his eyes, and replayed the exchange in his mind.

Fumei showed his emotions clearly through the smile and slight frown on his face. However, Akusa knew well to look beyond appearances and read between the lines. The way Fumei disregarded his compliment felt wrong. It was innocent yet condescending at the same time, and Akusa was well acquainted with types that say and think very different things.

He had been warned that Fumei had difficulty filtering his thoughts and often said what comes to mind. While Akusa didn't doubt the truth in them, he also felt otherwise. This wasn't a social or communication difficulty, what Fumei did was deliberate.

His eye twitched as Fumei's lips curled into a smirk.

Fumei flung his arms to the side and walls of light rotated around Akusa to limit his movements. It circled around him, pushing him closer to Fumei's direction.

Akusa broke through each wall but was immediately forced back when they reformed just as he dismantled them.

Fumei waved his finger. "Sorry. No way out of this one. How about we talk it out while you think of a plan to beat me? I have a few questions since you had plenty about me. You can choose not to answer by the way, but I don't like taking no for an answer."

Akusa quickly realized Fumei's game. He knew Akusa was suspicious of him; and in turn was curious about the other. Akusa allowed himself to smile at the open challenge. It has been a while since someone his age has piqued his interest.

Fumei had a way of hiding his true intentions with charm and kindness. It may have fooled everyone but it won't work on him. He started with the most obvious move.

Fumei was not interested in becoming a hero, but he was interested in helping his peers become one. Anyone with a brain would question it, and yet none of these idiots did. The only one that seemed to have any semblance of thought in them was Hitoshi Shinsou; and the way Fumei stuck behind him like a newly hatched ducklings raised some interesting flags.

Everyone thought it was nice of Fumei to force Shinsou out of his anti-social bubble, but Akusa knew differently. Someone wasn't playing along and Fumei wanted to fix it. Regardless of Fumei's secrets, Akusa thought it would be amusing to chip that plan before it reaches its fruition while he figured out the mystery of his character.

4 minutes left.

Akusa studied the walls blocking his mobility and dismissed the chances he had of breaking through them. He'd only exhaust himself. He glanced up at the ceiling and figured he had to cut off Fumei's strength from its source.

"Hello?" Fumei called out to him. "Are we talking or are we going to fight? One minute just passed."

"An astute observation."

Akusa pulled at Fumei's shadow and pushed a wispy looking spike through it.

Fumei dodged the spike then cut through it with a swipe of his hand. Light particles glittered behind his swing, indicating that he'd cut the unstable shadow mist with a thin blade of light.

Akusa stepped closer to him, pulling and tugging more jagged but wispy mist underneath Fumei's faint shadow. The closer he got, the more each spike seemed to materialize. Fumei expertly dodged and parried every last bit of them, and seemed to realize the connection between his shadow's sturdiness and Akusa' distance.

Fumei collapsed all the walls around Akusa and merged it on his palm. The light cast a harder shadow behind him and Akusa raised it up to grab Fumei back.

Fumei crushed the light in his hands, and the gym was engulfed in a bright flash. Akusa shielded his eyes, just as everyone else in the room did. When the light died down, Fumei was gone.

Akusa looked all over for him then looked up. A shadow covered his vision, and Akusa managed to block Fumei's drop kick in time. He pushed him off, and immediately grabbed unto his leg before he can retreat. Akusa pulled him down and knocked their heads together.

Fumei recoiled from the force, and Akusa followed it with a side kick to his gut. The blond rolled on the ground, winded out from the sudden pain shooting up his body.

Akusa chased after him and threw Fumei up in the air He socked him in the face and slammed Fumei's face back on the dirt. He pulled up his left arm, and dug a heel down on his shoulder blades.

Fumei cried out as Akusa pushed his face deeper into the ground, and added pressure to his heel.

"You wanted to talk?" Akusa sneered. "Let's talk. Who are you really?"

Fumei whimpered as Akusa tugged at his arm, and looked up at him. Some foreign sentiment flashed through Fumei's glare as Akusa held him down. He recognized that look. He just didn't understand why Fumei had it. After all, it was the same look he had when he grabbed that knife.

"ARGH!" Akusa hissed as multiple shards of thin glass pierced through the good arm pulling at Fumei's own. He recoiled at the pain, and was pushed off by the younger male with a quick side roll.

Fumei pushed his arms out, and Akusa was forced back by a thick wall of light that gave them both time to breath. The blonde massaged his shoulders and pressed on the slight crick on his neck.

Akusa waited for the other to make his next move. Fumei obviously had the upper hand given their environment, and while that frustrated Akusa, he's the kind that can adapt to anything.

Fumei ran towards him, dragging out two small blades to his side. He flung them at Akusa's face, who easily deflected it with a curtain of shadow. He caught Fumei's leg in the middle of a round-house when the veil dropped and pulled him over his shoulder.

Fumei grabbed Akusa's tracksuit and dragged him down with him. Akusa thrusted his arm at the other, and Fumei yelled as a spike grazed his left leg. He kicked Akusa's face then escaped to high-ground.

Akusa noted the slight limp Fumei had on his ascent, and saw how badly it bled compared to Akusa's own scars.

Fumei tended to his wound while Akusa welcomed the down time to reassess his opinions on the former.

3 minutes.

Akusa already knew that Fumei had secrets. Whether those secrets led to nothing, or spelled something more intriguing were yet to be proven. One thing was clear to him though, Fumei had the same eyes as him.

People have always assumed the worst of Akusa because of his eyes, his scar, and his ever so present superiority complex. He never corrected any of their opinions because they were true; and he did not care. However, Akusa couldn't deny that caring less about people's opinion didn't bring trouble round his corner.

Even then, Akusa still did not care. He said his peace and will move on. He was not a weakling. He didn't need people to tell him what he was. He didn't need people to pity him and save him. They had their chance, and they did nothing.

He had to save himself. He chose to take the road less taken and grew stronger. He learned to live, and no one was going to make him feel as powerless again. He won't let them.

It was surprising to see Fumei glare at him with such broken eyes. Akusa wasn't shocked that Fumei was capable of such strong emotion. Anyone that had something to hide had a tendency to have dark pasts. Which begged the question, why?

Fumei lived in a small apartment with his brother. He's allergic to nuts, and has been hospitalized once for breaking his arm. He practically announced every aspect of his life through social media and has never had any disciplinary records attached to his name.

He did find one case that linked him to an unsolved missing person's case. Even then, Fumei was only involved because he was in the same class as the missing kid and nothing more. Fumei lived a too normally to be able to do the things, and feel the things he did. The more Akusa learned about Fumei, the more interesting he became.

"Wouldn't it count as obstruction if you stay perched on that safe haven for too long?"

Fumei shrugged. "Does it?"

"I'm inclined to believe so."

"Alright. You asked for it."

Fumei waved his arms in a circular motion as he jumped down.

Tall transparent light blades surrounded Akusa, then spun around to crush him in the middle. He vaulted over them, and quickly combined them into a slope that Fumei slid down from.

Akusa caught Fumei's arm as he fell, and the latter swiped a leg under him. Akusa rolled over the ground as he fell from the platform and raised a dark wispy spike through it.

Fumei vaulted up in the air again and formed multiple blades. He pushed the blades down above Akusa, forcing the latter to run.

Akusa twisted and turned away from each blade ceaselessly through instinct. Fumei wasn't giving him the time to think with how quick he formed one blade to the next to limit Akusa's movements.

Akusa gritted his teeth as he dodged. Fumei was trying to push him out of the field; and was succeeding. Akusa couldn't form anything out of his shadow given the shower of light above him.

Fumei was adamant on keeping his advantage and every time Akusa tried to even out the odds, the former would snuff out his chance.

Akusa glanced up at the glass ceiling providing Fumei his unlimited source of power.

Akusa smashed the blades at his feet with a kick. "I can see what you're doing," he said while focused on the darkness beneath his feet. His shadow swayed with each flick of his finger. "And it's not going to work."

"Seems to be working so far."

"Not for long," Akusa chided and immediately pulled a shadow cloak over his head.

2 minutes.

Fumei tugged at thin air, and Akusa felt the cloak disperse back in dark wispy tendrils of smoke as a thin, needle like blade pierced through it, The thread sliced a narrow gash at his cheek, and Akusa clicked his tongue.

He pressed his hands on it and smirked. "Is this truly the best you can offer? A small wound? And here I expected more from the class' supposed top student. Perhaps I am better than you," he wondered aloud.

"You are," the blond agreed with narrowed eyes. "I just don't like to hear you say it."

A smirk formed in Akusa's lips as Fumei's eyes sparked dangerously. Finally.

Fumei sprinted towards him with his arms out. Akusa crouched then grabbed and folded the latters arms behind him. He kicked Fumei down to the ground and immediately called out to the shadows nearby.

A few of their peers screamed in worry as their shadows slithered on the floor and onto the ceiling. It covered the ceiling, erasing the light pouring out from it.

A brief second of panic flashed in Fumei's eyes.

Akusa grinned. "What's your plan now, top student? You've got no light left to save you."

Fumei raised his hands towards the veil and tried to burn through it.

Akusa felt the light struggle to break through. Fumei still had the advantage, but Akusa had enough time to turn this game around. Whilst the blond was distracted, Akusa immediately covered himself in shadow and disappeared.

He decked Fumei in the face, and the latter staggered back to cradle his bleeding nose. Fumei, now powerless without the sun, kicked and punched aimlessly on thin air.

Akusa heard him growl in frustration as the former dodged Fumei's attacks. He grinned to himself and jabbed a knee up into Fumei's stomach.

Fumei coughed and fell down on his knees. Akusa kicked him to his back and pressed his heel down unto the blondes chest. Fumei struggled to push the invisible entity off him while Sensei started to count the seconds.

"Yield, I have already won."

For a split second, Akusa could've sworn Fumei looked directly into his eyes before a bright explosion of light showered the gym.

Akusa's veil was forced to retire back to his shadows, and Fumei immediately regained his upper hand. He threw a long blade towards Akusa's cheek, which the latter dodged.

Fumei swiped under Akusa's legs and tackled him back down. Akusa rolled with the momentum and threw Fumei off him.

Fumei caught his fall then planted his hands on the ground. Transparent spires rose off the ground, mimicking Akusa's attack, and forced Akusa to back away in his rush forward.

Akusa winced as Fumei successfully nicked his side, and he stopped to assess the damage. He clicked his tongue, more irritated than hurt. He's dealt with worse.

Fumei pushed a block of light at Akusa, and the latter shattered it with his own spires. The blond rushed forward again, and Akusa ducked under it.

He called out the shadows underneath Fumei and grabbed at it with a backhand grip. He swiped the vague imitation of a knife at the blonde, who hastily blocked it with his arm.

Fumei winced as the blood dripped between then. Akusa could hear a few of their spectators gasp in concern.

"Give up," he insisted in a low growl as he added pressure to the blade.

Fumei kept his mouth shut and tried to get back at him with a weak punch. Akusa caught the fist and hummed. "You should have accepted defeat when I gave you the chance."

Akusa dispersed the knife back in the shadows and dragged Fumei's head to his knees. Fumei cried out as he held his bleeding nose, and was too late to deflect any of Akusa's barrage of attacks.

1 minute left

Akusa relentlessly punched and kicked at Fumei, but the blond was too stubborn to stay down.

Akusa raised Fumei's shadows and it wrapped around the latter like elastic black ropes. It forced him to his knees, and finally immobile on his back.

Sensei started to count, and Fumei clicked his tongue. He flashed another light above him to free himself and shot a bladed light at Akusa, who dodged it.

Still not down.

Fumei laughed with a wet gurgly voice. "Still think you're better? You can't even defeat me even when Im like this."

"Shut up," Akusa hissed. "I've already won. You just won't accept it."

"Me? It takes a sore loser to know one."

Fumei's hand glowed and before Akusa can react to it, his leg was caught in a box of light. Akusa's balance shifted on his weaker leg as the box flew high into the air.

He kicked through the construct and flipped back to his feet. Fumei lunged to meet his fall and kicked. Akusa tumbled towards the edge, but quickly caught himself.

Fumei threw another barrage of thinly shaped blades at him, and Akusa blocked them with his own shadows.

Akusa waved his hand and pointed them at his opponent.

30 seconds.

Another bright flash of light dissolved Akusa's shadows and left him unprepared for Fumei's advance. He caught Fumei's fist with his face, and immediately reeled his arm to retaliate.

Fumei trapped Akusa's left hook inside a small box and dragged it around to hit the former's face. He shifted his feet and kicked Akusa down on his knees.

Akusa swiped a wispy blade at Fumei, who immediately backed away.

Fumei growled as he assessed the torn shirt and formed a blade near his dominant hand. He drove the blade at Akusa, who grabbed it without a second thought. Fumei's eyes blew wide in shock.

Akusa kept his eyes on Fumei as the letters grip on the blade faltered. Fumei kicked Akusa back then flicked his hand to create three blades on his hand.

Akusa called for the shadows, which slithered up his arm and unto his hand, then swiped towards the blond's neck.

Everyone held their breath as both parties kept their weapons at each other's throats. A second passed, and Fumei retreated first. He swayed as he walked back to the bleachers and collapsed on his knees.

Kureito immediately ran to his aid, assessing the blond's injuries and adding a few misplaced jokes here and there that managed to break a smile on Fumei's battered face.

Akusa dismissed his blade and followed suit. He stopped in front of Awaseru-sensei, who looked at them grimly. "When I said we couldn't avoid a few bruises. I did not mean this."

"Tell him that," Fumei scoffed.

Akusa rolled his eyes as he replaced his face mask with a new one. "Lest you forget, you've left quite a mark on me as well." He raised a bleeding hand, then pointed at the multiple slash marks around his arms and legs. "It's unbecoming of you to lay all the blame unto me."

"Shut up," the blond said as he shifted uncomfortably under his ruined tracksuit. He was bruised all over because of Akusa's punches and kicks, and it stung everytime the fabric brushed against them. Compared to Akusa's narrow cuts, Fumei had a bleeding mark across his arms, and two smaller cuts by his chest. He was losing blood and was in need of immediate medical attention.

"I hoped that both of you would be responsible enough to avoid this much complication, but I'm afraid I placed too much faith on children."

Fumei avoided Sensei's gaze when the latter turned to him; while Akusa sighed impatiently. "So? Who won?"

"No one," Sensei glowered. "Skilled as you are, both of you were too reckless and blinded by the prize of victory to realize what mattered. Head to the infirmary, now. I'm not going to repeat myself again."

Fumei held his arms close to his chest and walked ahead. Kureito guided him but Sensei held the former back. "Not you," he turned to Akusa, "You go with him."

Fumei shook his head. "No, no, no. Anyone but him."

"Do I have to?" the other groaned.

"This is not debatable. You're both in bad condition, and I don't want one of you passing out on the way to Recovery Girl."

Akusa grumbled in protest but did as asked. He pushed Fumei forward, and the blonde snarled at him. They continued to push and kick at the other even after they disappeared through the door, and Awaseru-sensei sighed.

He looked over his notes on Akusa's quirk. The boy has acquired most, if not all, the potential his quirk is capable of. He still needed mastery over each skill, but even on his own, Awaseru noticed that the boy was accessing abilities that Black Veil wouldn't allow in its basic form.

Akusa's quirk only allowed him to cover himself in shadow and disappear, however all throughout the fight he created weapons from shadow. Not only that, Awaseru noted the way he fought with said weapons. Akusa moved akin to one who had experienced brawls. He moved fast, and acted fast.

The same could be said for Fumei. His previous analysis of Fumei's quirk limited his chances to learn more of the boy's performance, but it proved most of his predetermined notes true. Fumei's command over his quirk far exceeds those of his peers. Even against a peer with equal dexterity, Fumei hid this truth.

He avoided showing all the cards in his hands, and made Akusa believe he was stronger and better. Akusa's ego ate it up and fell for Fumei's trap. Akusa had little to no time to fight back after the rug has been pulled. If the match had gone any longer, Awaseru was certain the victor would be Fumei.

Nevertheless, both of them exhibited a level of thought Awaseru has only seen in mature fighters. Awaseru understood Akusa's level given his not so clean history, but Fumei's efficiency did raise questions.

Fumei had no desire to be a hero yet he checked every physical requirement needed for one. The only issue was that the boy cared little about consequences. His compassion, while present, was fleeting. Awaseru had seen his practical exam, and regardless of how he chose to defend it, it was clear that Fumei dropped debris on other participants to raise rescue points.

It was heavily debated among the staff as to how Fumei seemed hyper aware of the test's point system and controlled it in his favor. Aizawa reminded them that the test hadn't changed in the last twenty years and such knowledge from an applicant wasn't a surprise. Awaseru was inclined to agree, however, he couldn't help but feel as though there was more to it.

Fumei was not a normal student, that was clear from his insight on quirks, and his skill. Despite his difficulties in expressing himself appropriately, the kid had passion and empathy for others. Fumei had untapped sides to him that Awaseru was convinced he could unlock to make a hero out of him yet.

A/N: AND THAT'S A WRAP FOR THE FIGHT. I would've gone deeper into Akusa's thoughts and personal history but I didn't want to give away too much, so I apologize for being all secretive on you. But don't worry, this isn't the last we'll see of Akusa. Speaking of secretive, what ever could Fumei be hiding? FIND OUT - Not in the next chapter, but soon hopefully. I'd love to hear about what you think of our characters do far, or maybe just the fight, that would be great!

Next chapter we have the not so quick fight between Shinsou and Nusumi as well as Fumei and Koharu's. Thank you for reading! Dont forget to R&R, it sustains me. See you~